Portable electronic devices, such as laptop computers, PDAs, and the like, are used in modern clinical settings in the delivery of patient care. These devices allow clinicians to perform a variety of care-related tasks, examples of which include viewing a patient's electronic medical record (EMR) or collaborating with other clinicians about a particular patient's plan of care, all without having to be at a fixed location. By providing clinicians with tools that enable faster access to the information they need to make informed care delivery decisions, treatment outcomes and patient satisfaction may be improved.
Clinical organizations often have a number of portable electronic devices that are shared amongst numerous individuals performing clinical tasks. For example, a team of anesthesiologists in a hospital may share use of the same set of laptop computers or PDAs that are loaded with software relevant to the tasks that they commonly perform. These devices, however, are often the subject of theft due to their high value and portability. Not only is it expensive to replace these devices, but sensitive patient information may also be stored on them. Additionally, these items are easy to misplace in clinical settings where many other electronic devices are present. Each clinician that shares use of a device may also choose to store the device at a secure location that they will remember, but other clinicians may not be familiar with, causing confusion and wasted time searching for the device. Portable electronic devices also typically have a power supply, also called a “power converter”, for drawing A/C power during normal operation or recharging batteries within the device. In a clinical setting, these power supplies are also easy to misplace and difficult to distinguish from one another when many devices are present. Clinicians, therefore, have found elusive a solution for the organized storage and recharging of portable electronic devices.